Today, we all have to watch what we’re spending, and a night out that includes having a meal and then some form of entertainment like going to the cinema or the theatre sometimes costs so much that you don’t feel it’s possible to do it that often.
Bingo, amongst other activities, can be planned and played at home with friends to make evenings equally as fun as a night out, only much cheaper!
However, if you like nights out rather than staying in watching the box, there are plenty of cheaper forms of entertainment out there.
For a start you can begin the night at someone’s house, having a meal that you’ve cooked together and whatever you spend on ingredients, it’ll always work out cheaper than eating out. You also get the satisfaction of having cooked it yourself. You can add to the fun by putting in some ‘come dine with me’ elements, with different people providing different dishes that the others can rate in order of preference. It doesn’t matter if you’re not the best cook in the world, one way to improve is to do more cooking and try different dishes. You’ll soon get to have a few signature dishes in your repertoire.
Eyes down for bingo
As for entertainment, bingo has always been a great night out that costs little to take part in. And if you’ve never been to a bingo hall before now, you may be surprised at the wide range of people who go to them. It’s not just old age pensioners, people of all ages enjoy playing bingo, and you’ll often see groups of younger people having a few games of bingo before they go on to the pubs and clubs. It costs pennies to play a game of bingo, and yet you can stand to win a decent amount if you happen to pick cards with the lucky numbers. You’ll need to concentrate if you’re playing in a bingo hall, as it really is down to being the first player to mark their matching numbers off the most quickly and shout bingo before anyone else does.
If you want to play bingo with less stress of concentrating on the numbers, you could always play online where the software does the daubing of numbers for you, and if you have a winning card it gets logged automatically. This is a game you could play at home, but it’s equally possible to play on a mobile, so you could even have a group bingo night, with everyone gathering at one person’s house to play the same games together.
Get up to the oche
Darts is another great value game that can give a fun focus for nights out. If you’re going to the pub anyway, it’s great to do something while you’re there that will provide entertainment and a bit of friendly competitiveness. Any pub worth its salt will have a darts board set up and most pubs have their own darts competitions and tournaments. There are men’s and women’s teams, as well as mixed teams. Some pubs belong to a darts league and if you’re a good player, you might soon find yourself booked in to play against rival teams.
If you’re new to darts, you can learn a lot by watching some of the major televised tournaments and you may as well have a punt on one of the players while you’re watching, to add to the interest you have in their progress. This year’s 2014 Ladbrokes World Darts Championship in December and January saw the defending champion, Phil Taylor, going out in the second round. The winner was Michael van Gerwen, the sixth person to win the event in its 21 year history and the youngest person to win the event – at the age of 24. His win also moved him up to the new world number one darts player. There’s no telling where that first game of darts in the pub could take you.
Become a quiz master
Another fun way to spend time during a night out in the pub is to join in the quiz nights. Most pubs run them and they’re always looking for new teams to take part. As well as being something interesting to focus on while you’re enjoying a drink, you’d be surprised at how many new facts and little bits of knowledge that you’ll pick up along the way.
With so many quiz shows on TV like Pointless, Eggheads and Only Connect, you can spend time at home watching and learning, so that you’ll get familiar with the typical trivia questions that come up at the pub quizzes. There are also plenty of apps that provide you with new pieces of trivia every day, and if you’re really keen, you can do some serious swotting before the next pub quiz.
Caption: Although the gym isn’t your typical night out, it can still be plenty of fun!
Get fit
Nights out don’t have to involve alcohol and food. If you want to get fit, the evenings are a great time to exercise. If you enjoy running, see if you can get a friend to run with you, or join a local running club. It’s sometimes hard to motivate yourself on your own, but if you commit to running with at least one other person, then it’s harder to wimp out as you’ll be letting someone down by not going.
You don’t have to join an expensive gym to get fit. There are plenty of local authority gyms and pools that have facilities that are just as good as private set-ups like Total Fitness. If you find doing a routine at the gym too difficult to do by yourself, opt to join an exercise class instead, where you can mix fitness with socialising.
These are just a few suggestions on making a night out less costly. There are plenty of other ways to keep the costs down; you just have to be imaginative and be ready to try new and different things. It’s great to have a variety of ways to spend time with your friends as it adds a new dynamic to nights out and even though you’ll spend less than you used to, you’ll still have a lot of fun. Get out there and try something new!
